Did you know that different types of content can help you reach different goals on Instagram? The most effective social media involves first strategizing about what you want to accomplish before you actually start posting. Here are the best types of content to post on Instagram based on your goals.
What Types of Content Post on Instagram to Reach Your Goals
1. Getting More Reach
When you talk about general “reach” or impressions, it can sound like a fluffy metric, but hear us out. If no one is seeing your content at all, then how can people engage with it or potentially become a client or customer?
Of course, you still want to be intentional about the social media content you create. While a chocolate cake recipe might be popular and reach a large number of people, if you’re trying to work with small business owners, then all those people you’re reaching likely won’t even be a good fit for your business.
Right now, creating Instagram reels is one of the best ways to increase your overall reach, but just make sure the content is relevant to your ideal client.
2. Growing Your Following
The next metric after reach and impressions is followers. Sometimes followers are a byproduct of creating high quality content, and sometimes it helps to get more active on Instagram and engage more with other people in your niche. Reels can also help increase your number of followers with their increased reach and popularity.
At the end of the day, the number of followers you have doesn’t tell us the whole story. While having a bunch of followers is nice, what really matters is how engaged your following is. Which brings us to our next point…
3. Increasing Engagement
There are several ways to increase engagement on Instagram. First, reels are another solid content choice here. Besides that, you can create quote posts or memes (if relevant to your niche) because these are popular and people love to “like” this type of content.
You can also create engagement posts where you specifically ask people a question. For example, you might create an engagement post graphic that asks people what their favorite social media platform is, thus encouraging more comments.
Finally, carousel posts are another solid way to increase your engagement. In these posts, people can swipe through multiple graphics like a slideshow. If your content is helpful and valuable, people are more likely to engage with these types of posts and even save them for later. Bonus tip: try adding a slide at the end of your carousel post with a call to action asking people to like, share, save, or follow for more!
4. Building the Know, Like, Trust Factor
The Know, Like, Trust factor (sometimes called KLT for short) is how people go from being total strangers to knowing, liking, and trusting you when they find you online. The best types of content to build the KLT factor are personal Instagram stories (consider showing your face), photos or videos of you, or behind the scenes or personal content.
People want to do business with people they like, so pulling back the curtain a little bit on Instagram and giving people a glimpse of who you are can make you seem more personable and less robotic.
5. Getting More Sales
Finally, one of the goals of social media is to help nurture the relationship with your audience so you can ultimately make more sales in your business! If every single post you make is promotional, it probably won’t perform well, but if you sprinkle in a few sales posts here and there after growing your audience and building your know, like, and trust factor, it can be magical.
Consider creating sales content that is helpful and valuable first and foremost and ALSO has a call to action at the end inviting someone to take the next step — whether that’s hopping on a call with you, filling out an application, checking out your online store, or signing up as a new client.
This can be any content type on Instagram, and if you’re holding a sale or running a limited time launch, you might want to do a little bit of everything!
Depending on what you want to accomplish on Instagram, we generally recommend using a mix of different types of posts like reels, static posts, quotes, Instagram stories, and carousel posts that all speak to your target audience and reach them in different ways.
You might have a preferred format like making lots of fun reels or going live on Instagram stories to connect directly with your followers. Either way, your business will have a unique strategy that supports your goals.
If you’d like to have a more strategic Instagram account that helps your business reach its goals, my team can help! Click here to fill out an application and learn more about hiring us.
